Artist, Instructor, using only Free/Libre and Open-Source software since 2009.

Best practices for attribution

Published on 25 march 2017

For my webcomic Pepper&Carrot, I want to give people the right to share, use, create, build and even make money upon the artworks, stories and universe I've created. For this, I'm publishing my content under a specific license: The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. It's a very permissive license: you just need to write the 'attribution' in order to reuse the work.

An attribution is an appropriate credit to the author's name or nicknames (artists, correctors, translators involved in the creation of the media you want to use). With an attribution for the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (let's shorten it to CC-By) you also need to mention the license of the media (and provide a link if you can) and indicate if you made changes.

You may do all of this in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the authors endorses you or your use. So, let see with practical example what are the best practices to write attribution for Pepper&Carrot :

The basic one:

That's the basic case: you just want to reuse the media as it is. You'll need to write the title of the artwork, my name and the CC-By license.

In case of modification:

If you modified the original artwork, you need to tell your audience how. You just need to indicate "what you did" so the audience will understand "who did what".

Full:

A derivative by MyNameHere of "Artwork title" by David Revoylicensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Change made: Crop and color balanced.

Short:

A derivative (crop/color) by MyNameHere of "Artwork title" by D.Revoy, CC-By

Mini:

(Crop/color)MyNameHere/Art:D.Revoy/ᶜᶜᴮᵞ

In case of modification and relicensing

The license of Pepper&Carrot is so permissive that it allows you to use another license than the CC-By. For this, you have to write the license you want to use (compatible CC-By-Sa, CC-By-Nc, CC-By-Nd or even Copyright, but not compatible Public Domain/CC-0) and keep indicating that the original artwork is released as CC-By. Relicensing your own derivation will not affect the CC-By original file.

Full:

A derivation Copyrighted by MyNameHere of "Artwork title linked to the original page" by David Revoy originally licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Change made: Blue cat is better, added a pencil.

Short:

A Copyrighted derivative (blue version/pencil) by MyNameHere of "Artwork title" by D.Revoy, CC-By

Comic Publishing:

The second page of the Glénat published comic, with the whole list of attributions

Comic stories have more contributors: proofreaders, script doctors, translators, scenarists, etc... and they are all based on the Hereva universe (the collaborative CC-By world described on the Wiki of Pepper&Carrot.) To know the full attribution of an episode, check at two places: the last page(s) of the webcomic online , and the source page of the episode in Sources > Webcomic.

Movies/animation and video-games derivations

4 screens: the start of the game/movie with a simple general attribution and the end credits with detailed attribution.

Modern video game, animations and movies include cinematic introductions (even if they are just a fading between slides of company logos and a title; I consider it as cinematic.) The first screens in the introduction are often a place of choice to insert the general credit. The full and detailed attribution can be found at the end of the movie/game; or in a submenu of the media (gamestart/chapter).

Intro screen:

Based on the webcomic Pepper&Carrot by David Revoy

Full credits later (end credits):

Based on the webcomic Pepper&Carrot by David Revoy.https://www.peppercarrot.comLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Based on the universe of Hereva created by David Revoy with contributions by Craig Maloney.Corrections by Willem Sonke, Moini, Hali, CGand and Alex Gryson.

Role-Playing-Games and Board-Games

If you decide to publish a printed Role Playing Game or a Board Game about Pepper&Carrot, you'll find yourself in a situation a bit similar than the movie/video game above. But the general credit will go on the cover, and the detailed credit in the printed rules or back the box. Don't forget to attribute the end product on the e-shop page too.

Box cover:

Based on the webcomic Pepper&Carrot by David Revoy

Later (rules, or behind the box):

Based on the webcomic Pepper&Carrot by David Revoy.https://www.peppercarrot.comLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Based on the universe of Hereva created by David Revoy with contributions by Craig Maloney.Corrections by Willem Sonke, Moini, Hali, CGand and Alex Gryson.

Crowdfunding campaign

If you launch a crowdfunding campaign (Kickstarter/Indigogo/etc...) around Pepper&Carrot, just attribute correctly the media you use in the campaign and add an important disclaimer to let your audience know some basic information. Especially "where the money goes". In fact, when re-using Pepper&Carrot artworks, universe, etc; a big part of your audience will imagine that are funding me as an independent artist. You need a disclaimer to tell that in fact, it's your project they fund, not the artworks you use...

The disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER: This campaign is collecting funds exclusively for my <MyNameHere> work on the production of <MyProject>.David Revoy, the original author of the web-comic Pepper&Carrot is not involved in the production processand does not receive/shares any revenues collected here.The name of David Revoy on images are specified for attribution purposes but not as sign of affiliation.

You can support his work and webcomic through his Patreon page:https://www.patreon.com/davidrevoy

Software and Source code

A README.md at the root of your project is usually a good place to write information about attributions and credits. If your project is bigger, you might want a separate CREDITS file.

Markdown:

Based on the webcomic [Pepper&Carrot](https://www.peppercarrot.com) by David Revoylicensed under the [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Based on the universe of Hereva created by David Revoy with contributions by Craig Maloney.Corrections by Willem Sonke, Moini, Hali, CGand and Alex Gryson.

Objects/Merchandising/Commercial goodies

Clothes, figurines, toys and other real-life objects also require a proper attribution on the product itself, on the box/packaging and on the web product page/e-shop:

Product label and E-Shop page

A derivative product designed by MyName/CompanyHere, based on the webcomic Pepper&Carrot CC-BY David Revoy

Fan-art

If you do a fan-art, a good practice is to write the attributions/information directly on the picture. This information survives longer than if you write it in the description.

Note: On social network, using the hashtag #peppercarrot is not an attribution. But it's fun :-)

Fan-art attribution:

"My title", a fan-art by MyNameHere of Pepper&Carrot by D.Revoy, CC-By

Fan-fiction

If you write a fan-fiction, the best place is to attribute it in the header. So your reader will directly know what they are reading.

Fan-fiction attribution:

"My fiction title" by MyNameHere, based on the CC-By webcomic Pepper&Carrot by David Revoy

Forum, Community, Channel

External communities, forums, social network pages are helping a lot with growing the community. If you manage or created a page like this on your favorite network you'll need to attribute it this way:

For the header:

Unofficial community based on the universe of the CC-By webcomic Pepper&Carrot by David Revoy

In the About page, longer version with more information:

Based on the webcomic [Pepper&Carrot](https://www.peppercarrot.com) by David Revoylicensed under the [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Based on the universe of Hereva created by David Revoy with contributions by Craig Maloney.Corrections by Willem Sonke, Moini, Hali, CGand and Alex Gryson.

End notes

I hope this guide will help you go ahead with your project by providing all the necessary information without waiting for a private authorization or dealing on the long process to setup a contract. If you want more informations, read the Creative Commons documentation. This page was freely inspired by their wiki page "Best practices for attribution".

And if you have any doubt, leave a comment bellow or better: email me info@davidrevoy.com :-)

14 comments

Role-Playing-Games and Board-Games
the simulated cover was great and i definitel would want to play it

oh My GOD!
https://www.peppercarrot.com/data/images/faq/2017-03_good-practise-attributions/2017-03_goodpractise_ccby_08_object.jpg
this need to be real!
but instead of plain black text, an imprinted one should be better (not sure if that is the term)
i guess The effect can be simulated with displacement map or bump map.

this picture of peper is so beautyfull

https://www.peppercarrot.com/data/images/faq/2017-03_good-practise-attributions/2017-03_goodpractise_ccby_03_relicensing.jpg
so destructive, an sepia would fit better, i hope no one do derivative works like that xD

Hey David, this is a really good page and I bet it will inspire people to create some interesting things too.

The last two are a little odd though. Copyright only applies to the form of an idea, not to ideas themselves. So you could say "Based on Pepper&Carrot by David Revoy" but if you add the CC-By part, it confuses the ideas of the world and comic with the copyright of the original works you create. Fan works (that are not derived) don't have a copyright link with the original works, but should credit you for I think moral rights or trademarks.

Thank you! Interesting; sure, I'll do my best to keep editing this article and refining it for pure best practise. But here I treat fan-art and fan-fiction as derivative project. I don't think a particular 'fair' rule should apply on them. This is something the industry of proprietary license invented to not sue all the core fans of a franchise , imo. ( a blury zone, because they can still sue at any time ).

To clarify, I think what Martin is asking/saying is: how do you provide attribute for the original work without without confusing the end user to think the license applies to the new derivative portion of the work (and the work as a whole)?

Ha this (thanks). In this case, maybe it's good to write a long attribution explaining all in details as the example of : "A derivation Copyrighted by MyNameHere of "Artwork title linked to the original page" by David Revoy originally licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Change made: Blue cat is better, added a pencil. "